The present invention relates to systems and methods for browsing the operating state of test equipment.
Modern industrial test equipment that tests objects of manufacture is typically automated to allow reliable high volume manufacturing. Keeping these testers up and running is therefore of paramount importance for meeting production goals. Inherent in keeping a tester up and running is the ability to quickly and efficiently observe and configure the operating state of the tester. Such test equipment typically provides some type of user interface to allow configuration of the tester and observation of its operational state. However, the user interface typically comprises customized software specific to the particular test equipment. In addition, the user interface is typically dependent on the hardware of the particular test equipment.
For example, semiconductor manufacturing facilities may utilize Automated Test Equipment (ATE) for testing integrated circuit devices. In the past, state data of the ATE was examined using a text-based interface and a set of commands for display and modification of the state data. Graphical state data display for ATE in the past was tied to the hardware, operating merely as a graphical user interface that calls the text-based commands. This type of GUI is static, either drawn at run-time from polygons, or pre-rendered. Furthermore, the mapping of GUI elements to command calls to the hardware to obtain/modify state data is also static.
In addition, in the past, the state information returned by the test equipment is often not regular, and specialized parsers are often required for different types of command calls.
It would therefore be desirable to have a hardware independent and graphically extensible interface to test equipment that allows inspection, and preferably modification, of the operational state of test equipment.